CU Ranks at top of Sustainable Campus list
Filed in Education | Efficiency | Environment
The Daily Camera reports the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus has received another green designation. The Sustainable Endowments Institute, a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors gave CU the highest grade awarded on its 2010 report card. And for the second year in a row, CU was named an Overall College Sustainability Leader. CU this fall was ranked by Sierra magazine as the No. 1 green university in the nation. The rating was based on an independent review by the Sustainable Endowments Institute and responses by CU-Boulder officials to 120 questions assessing sustainability in the categories of administration, climate change and energy, food and recycling, green building, transportation, student involvement, endowment transparency and shareholder engagement and investment priorities.
Why Colorado Tax Bill HB-1192 is a Bad Idea…
Filed in Colorado | Energy | Politics | Technology
Seth Levine has posted Marion Jenkins’ detailed rebuttal to HB 1192. Mr. Jenkins suggests this tax legislation should be opposed due to a wide range of problems, including it being a new tax which should go before all voters to the complexity in determining when a lump of software code is deemed “standard” and subject to these new taxes versus custom code that is not to be taxed.
The bottom line is really about jobs in Colorado. And with this bill, the jobs which are easily moved to more business friendly states will start that migration. The Sixty-sixth General Assembly can choose to address the issues with the state budget directly and bring the issues to the people, or they can choose to tear down the reasons businesses choose to be in Colorado.
100 Year-old Boulder Canyon Turbines Replaced
Filed in Colorado | Economy | Energy | Environment
The DOE is investing up to $1.18 million for a project in Boulder, Colo. to upgrade the 100-year-old Boulder Canyon Hydroelectric Project by replacing two older turbines with a single unit. The new turbine is expected to operate at a wider range of flows and higher efficiency ranges, resulting in an increase in annual generation of 11,000 MWh (30% increase).
Along with 6 other projects the DOE is investing $30.6 million to create an additional 187,000 MWh/year, while replacing turbines that are as much as 90 and 100 years old. Clean (cutting 110,00o tons of CO2 emissions/year), cheap (adding generation at less than 4 cents per kWh) and lowering operating and maintenance costs.
NIST Fasttracks SmartGrid Standards
Filed in Colorado | Economy | Efficiency | Energy | Politics
NIST released a draft report on the SmartGrid interoperability standards yesterday. The roughly 80 initial standards and 14 priority action plans are available for public review and comment for 30 days. Following this comment period the first phase of NIST’s 3 phase approach will be completed with the final release of the NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 1.0.
What am I doing here?
For the second year in a row, Forbes names Boulder ‘smartest city’ in U.S. While a more accurate name would be the most educated city in the U.S., I can easily support the argument that the place is full of people with impressive intellectual power. Come visit us and see.
Bonderman addresses Silicon Flatiron crowd at CU
Filed in Colorado | Economy | Management | Venture capital
Speaking of the TXU purchase, Mr. Bonderman said the company was adept at running a profitable company and equally bad at politics from price increases to ecology to labor relations. These shortcomings lead tothe opportunity which focused on addressing these public concerns.Opportunities for private equity include exploiting public investorsfocus on short term focus, their dislike for debt or leverage, fixingbroken companies and putting companies together that changes thecompetitive landscape.His advice to students wondering which classes to take for a career inprivate equity, which job to take this summer, which classes to takenext year is to “Just relax”.In looking at the public policy of the US, Bonderman says ourlawmakers are thinking like it is 1975 when the US represented 50% ofthe world’s GDP. Now that we are less than 30% and falling the rest ofthe world has choices and will not play by any US tax code.Best run companies are those which build value over long periods oftime. However, fund managers often are looking for short term gains.This makes creating proper incentives for publicly traded companies’managers sub optimal if not downright harmful.
Tech Cocktail Comes to Boulder
Filed in Colorado | Technology
Be a part of the Boulder tech scene and register today for the Tech Cocktail March 6th event. Colorado Startups has the details.
Open Coffee Club Boulder
Filed in Colorado | Technology
Attended my first Boulder Open Coffee Club this morning at The Cub on Pearl near 16th. I was dropped in after the planetarium trip with my son’s first grade class was postponed due to snow and cold (we were scheduled to walk past the CU solar system model to the show). As I arrived they were discussing the best places to find professional support such as legal, accounting, etc. And quickly finished promoting a new source for collaborative support the Boulder Tech Bootstrap site. The site will contain both a wiki and a discussion forum for entrepreneurs to help each other just git it done.
Why Live in Colorado
Filed in Colorado | Environment
A question I rarely ask, “Why do I live in Colorado?” is regularly answered in ways like it was today. Driving from Denver to Boulder I interrupted my cell phone caller with “There is a bald eagle in that tree right there.” – Don’t worry Mom, I wasn’t driving. -
It is these regular, yet surprising scenes of our wonderful state that reminds me, long before I forget, what brought me here in the first place.
